To receive declarations ofdisclosable pecuniary and other interestsfrom Members in respect of any item to be
considered at the meeting.

In
accordance with the Officer Procedure Rules, the Head of Democratic
and Legal Services, Peter Bryant, will declarea disclosable personal interest (non-pecuniary)in any items under which the Thameswey Group of
Companies, Brookwood Cemetery or Duke’s Court are discussed,
arising from his position as a Director of the subsidiary
companies. The interest is such that
speaking is permissible.

In
accordance with the Officer Procedure Rules, the Finance Director,
Leigh Clarke, will declarea disclosable
personal interest (non-pecuniary)in any
items under which Duke’s Court is discussed, arising from her
position as a Director of Dukes Court Owner T S a r l. The interest is such that speaking is
permissible.

In
accordance with the Members’ Code of Conduct, Councillor I
Johnson declared a non-pecuniary interest in any item under which
Woking Football Club was discussed, arising from his wife’s
position as the Chairman of Woking Football Club. The interest was
such that speaking and voting were permissible.

In
accordance with the Officer Procedure Rules, the Head of Democratic
and Legal Services, Peter Bryant,declared
a disclosable personal
interest (non-pecuniary)in any items
under which the Thameswey Group of Companies, Brookwood Cemetery or
Duke’s Court were discussed, arising from his position as a
Director of the subsidiary companies. The interest was such that
speaking was permissible.

In
accordance with the Officer Procedure Rules, the Finance Director,
Leigh Clarke,declared a
disclosable personal interest
(non-pecuniary)in any items under
which Duke’s Court was discussed, arising from her position
as a Director of Dukes Court Owner T S a r l. The interest was such that speaking was
permissible.

In
accordance with the Officer Procedure Rules, the Head of Democratic
and Legal Services, Peter Bryant,declared
a disclosable personal
interest (non-pecuniary)in any items
under which Woking Football Club was discussed, arising from his
position as a Council appointed Director of Kingfield Community
Sports Centre Ltd, being a member of the Cards Trust; and on
occasion providing advice and assistance to the Club on an unpaid
basis. The interest was such that speaking was
permissible.

In
accordance with the Officer Procedure Rules, the Finance Director,
Leigh Clarke,declared a
disclosable personal interest
(pecuniary)in any items under which
Woking Football Club was discussed, arising from her husband
holding a small shareholding in the Club. The interest was such
that speaking was permissible.

4.

Urgent Business

To consider any business that
the Chairman rules may be dealt with under Section 100B(4) of the Local Government Act
1972.

The Committee
received the report on the Internal Audit work undertaken during
the 2018/19 financial year, leading to the annual assurance opinion
that overall controls were deemed to be effective within the
Council. There had been four negative
assurance opinions issued, however action was being taken to
rectify the issues raised.

The Committee noted
that there were some outstanding Audits expected to be completed
during the current financial year, including Asset Management; an
advisory Audit on the Council’s ICT Strategy; and the Waste
Management Contract Audit being led by Surrey Heath Borough
Council.

A new tracking
system was being developed for actions arising from Internal Audit
reports which was expected to be introduced shortly. If Managers were unable to implement an action
arising from a report, a discussion would be held with Internal
Audit to consider whether an alternative was required.

The Business
Continuity Internal Audit report was stated to be in the process of
being finalised, with a limited assurance opinion, and it was
agreed that the report along with management actions would be added
to the Work Programme for consideration by the Committee.

RESOLVED

That the annual assurance opinion of the Head of Internal Audit
over the control environment be noted.

The Chairman
welcomed Leigh Lloyd-Thomas and Matthew Vosper from the
Council’s External Auditor, BDO, to the meeting for the
Auditor’s report to those charged with Governance (ISA 260)
2018-19.

The Committee was
advised that the statutory responsibility of the External Auditor
was to issue an opinion on the Council’s financial statements
along with a value for money conclusion. An unqualified opinion was anticipated to be
issued for both relating to the 2018/19 financial year. Due to the slightly later start of the Audit
following the recent merger involving BDO, there were a number of
areas where work had not yet been finalised which had been
highlighted in green throughout the report, in particular the
valuation of investment properties held by the Council and its
subsidiary companies.

A total of four
adjustments had been proposed to the draft Statement of Accounts
published in May 2019, three of which the Council had reported to
BDO prior to the Audit commencing. The
remaining change related to the calculation of the pension
liability due to a national issue affecting valuations for all
Councils during the current year. In
addition, the Audit had identified one difference of £137,000
relating to the timing of income received from the sale of parking
permits. The Accounts would not be
adjusted as the amount was below the level of materiality required,
which was stated to be £2.6m for the Comprehensive Income and
Expenditure Statement and £15.5m for the Balance Sheet.

A recommendation
had been raised as a result of the audit work relating to the
processes in place to ensure income and expenditure were recorded
in the correct year. In addition, the
Committee was advised that in future years BDO would suggest
changes to the formatting of the Accounts in light of CIPFA
guidelines on presentation. It was
noted that changes would be considered, however it was important
that they made a positive contribution towards enhancing
accessibility for members of the public.

RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL

That the report to Those Charged with Governance (ISA 260) 2018/19
be received.

The Committee
received the report on the Annual Governance Statement which
demonstrated the effectiveness of the Council’s corporate
governance environment, with the Statement and Action Plan attached
as Appendix 1 and the matrix used as the basis for the governance
analysis attached as Appendix 2. The
Statement was included in the Council’s Statement of
Accounts.

Page 30 of the
Statement referred to the Council’s arrangements for
consultation along with the principles of consultation document and
it was agreed to clarify their location on the website. Page 43 included a reference to the tracking of
actions and it was noted that the new action tracking system could
be considered for dealing with External Audit actions in addition
to Internal Audit actions.

Concern was raised
over some of the items received by the Executive or Council being
classed as Part II Confidential and it was noted that the Council
aimed to ensure that matters were
discussed under Part I, although there were limited occasions where
there was a need to protect the Council’s business interests
or the interests of those organisations which the Council was
carrying out business with.

It was agreed to
clarify outside the meeting whether the Citizen’s Panel had
been used in recent times as part of the wider consultation
work. The importance of allowing a
sufficient consultation period for proposals affecting members of
the public was noted. In addition, the
new Neighbourhood Forums were noted to be successful in engaging
with the public in areas such as Byfleet and West Byfleet and could
be included within the Statement.

With regard to the
number of Directors appointed to the Boards of the Council’s
subsidiary companies, it was stated that when making acquisitions
the Council may need to buy the company which owned the asset,
therefore requiring the Council to nominate Directors even when the
intention was to transfer the asset to the Council and liquidate
the company. All Directors were aware
of their respective interests and in the unlikely event of a
possible conflict arising between the Council and the company, the
Council officer would resign from the respective
Directorship. For Thameswey companies,
there was a Protocol in place which provided for the quorum of at
least one Councillor Director, one Independent Director and one
Officer Director being present at each Board meeting.

Regarding Principle
E on page 19, ‘Developing the entity’s capacity,
including the capability of its leadership and the individuals
within it’, it was stated that the Council should ensure that
the workload of staff did not reach unrealistic levels and there
was a continued focus on succession planning within the
Authority. Reference was made to the
Peer Review which was undertaken in 2015 and noted that the next
Peer Review would be held in November 2019.

The Health and
Safety Annual Report was received, which set out the activity
during the 2018/19 financial year, including training; accident
information for Council employees, non-employees and contractors;
and health and safety incidents. With
the exception of an accident to Amey’s staff there was no major accidents
which had taken place. An error was
highlighted in section 4 of the report, there had been a total of
five accidents to staff as opposed to four as stated in the
report.

The Chairman
welcomed the use of consultants to undertake health and safety
audits. It was noted that contractors
were required to submit annual health and safety information to the
Council and remained fully responsible for activity involving their
own employees.

Concern was
expressed that there had been an increase in aggressive incident
reports at the Council over the past year. As a result, the Council’s Corporate
Management Group had agreed recently that a permanent security
presence should be placed in the entrance lobby to the Civic
Offices to deter future incidents.

Regarding training,
it was noted that a number of staff required to undertake courses
had not yet completed them, although some would be on long-term
sick leave or new to the organisation.
Email reminders were circulated to all staff with a course
outstanding, with the overall monitoring undertaken by Human
Resources or the Senior Health and Safety Officer.

As requested by the
Committee last year, the Summary of Accidents reported by way of
claim for compensation with no accident form was set out on page 59
of the report.

RESOLVED

That the Health and Safety Annual Report be received no matters of
concern.